When Love Takes you In
by Petchricor
Summary: Wash had a bit of a mental breakdown at the mention of the fall of the Project, can his new team help pull him back together again? *rated T just to be safe*


**Another random idea I had after two songs played one after the other in a row. _Welcome to My Life _by Simple Plan and _When Love Takes you in _by Steven Curtis Chapman. Enjoy**

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They didn't know where the argument had stared but here they were, standing tensely across from each other with hard glares on each of their faces. Caboose stood off in the distance watching the two as they screamed back and forth at each other. Tucker shoved Wash and Wash shoved back, the two being tired and stressed out after all of this. They had been going at this for over and hour now and Caboose was nervous and had no clue what he should do

"Shut up, Wash! You don't care! You never cared! You're a heartless Freelancer! What do you know of pain, or hurt? What have you ever lost?!" Tucker screamed and the entire room went quiet as Wash glared at him with a pain and anger he had never seen before. Wash grabbed Tucker by the front of his armor and threw him across the room, making him fall onto the ground and left him staring up in shock.

"EXCUSE ME?!" he screamed. Caboose whimpered and took a step back, Tucker gulped. "I lost my ENTIRE team! They were my friends, my family! I trusted them and they betrayed me! I went insane, my best friend turned into a monster, and don't you even get me started on everything else!" Tucker stared with his jaw slacked as Wash's eyes filled with tears and his Adam's apple shifted as he got choked up. "I had to stand, and watch them fall apart. Because there was _nothing _I could do, no matter how how I tried..." Wash took in a deep breath, his voice cracking extremely as he held back the sobs. "I stood, and watched. And I will NOT stand and watch as YOU stand here and make claims to understand what happened to them!" Wash threw his helmet so hard it stuck in the wall and he ran out.

Wash didn't care about the Reds, or Locus, or anybody else for that matter having a clear shot to his head. He walked for awhile before he stumbled forward and fell to his knees, letting out a emotionally pained yell as the tears overflowed passed his lashes and onto the ground below him. He let out a loud scream again and pounded his fist against the ground as the pain from the past came to haunt him. He had lost everything that had mattered; his best friend, his love, his sister, his memories, his sanity, and his entire team. They all meant to much to him and they were stripped away from him, taking his emotions with them.

Wash struggled to his feet and stumbled into the canyon wall, he pounding his armored fist against the wall with a sound that crossed between a shout and a sob. It hurt, it hurt so much that he thought his heart would leap out of his chest. His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth as a puff of air came from his nostrils as his hurt slowly turned to fury, in his blind anger Wash punched the wall, watching as pieces of the rock fell to the ground along with bits of his armor in the mix. He pounded both fists against the wall as hard as he could, the rock shaking beneath his anger and he gave out a loud, painful scream that made his voice hoarse and sounded throughout the entire canyon, making the Reds poke their heads out of their base in confusion and worry.

"Damnit!" Wash screamed, pounding his fists against the rock wall again. "Goddamnit why?! It's not fair! It's not fucking fair! Goddamnit!" Wash pounded his fists again and banged his head up against the rock before him as he yelled out in pain again, ignoring the trickling, red liquid that made its way down the rock before him. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly as tears filled his eyes, rage slowly turning to sorrow. Wash fell to his kneels, head still leaning up against the wall as his forehead dragged blood down with it, and let out another loud cry only to have it die in his throat and be replaced by the sound of sobs as tears landed on his armored knees.

He had spent years making himself look sane, building up a strong wall around his emotions and letting no one find their way passed his defenses and into his true state of mind. But in this exact moment that barrier crumbled to the ground and turned to ash as he knelt there, letting it all out in tears, sobs and soft screams of agony as he pounding his fists against the canyon wall his head still leaned against. His wails were so loud he didn't hear the others calling him, worry in their voices as they searched, or hear as someone slowly approached him.

Someone touched his shoulders and Wash screamed, whirling around to give a firm punch to the person's jaw but his fist was caught in a firm hand and he was yanked forward into a strong hug that removed his ability to move as he was held tightly against the other soldier. Wash shook in their grasp and gripped them tightly back, face shoved into their shoulder as he continued to sob and cry and their grip tightened slightly around him, pulling him even closer to them in an effort to comfort him as his entire body shook as he cried out again in agony.

"I'm sorry, Wash, I am _so _sorry," came the oddly comforting tone of Tucker's voice as the aqua solider hugged Wash tightly. Wash still shook but his sobs and tears had lessened greatly as he held tightly to Tucker as though he was the only real thing in the world. The others came around the corner and froze at the sight, going silent as Wash slowly composed himself and pulled back from Tucker's firm grasps, being held by the shoulders and looked at sympathetically by the other blue teammate. "Wash, please, the next time something like this comes up, don't run, ok? Talk to us, we want to help, seriously. You may be an annoying asshole, but we care about you man, you're part of the team." Wash wiped his left eye and sniffed.

"Yeah, we're not Freelancers, ya know, in case you hadn't noticed," Grif said with a shrug as he and the others headed over slowly, as though afraid they'd upset the ex-agent more. "We aren't cold, hardened soldiers. We're all, feely-weely and what-not." Wash chuckled a bit and wiped his other eye. Caboose knelt down and hugged Wash tightly around the waist.

"Hey, even us Reds are willin' t' pitch in!" Sarge said, waving his shotgun around in a way they all knew was extremely unsafe. "I hate dem dirty Blues! But you ain't so bad, Wash. You'd make a hell of a Red!" Wash found it in him to smile, an arm wrapped around Caboose as the younger soldier still hadn't let go.

"Agent Washingtub?" Wash looked down as Caboose finally spoke up, looking up at him with tear filled eyes. "I-I'm sorry, i-if I did anything." No one would admit it, except maybe Wash and Tucker to only each other, but their hearts melted as Caboose spoke with sorrowful eyes. Wash pulled Caboose tightly to his side and shook his head with a soft smile.

"No, Caboose. You didn't do anything," he said kindly and Caboose got a small smile.

"But _I_ did," everyone turned as Tucker spoke, looking down at the ground in shame. "I shouldn't have made that comment, I had no right to insult your team or your friends. It was terrible of me and I'm sorry." Wash yanked Tucker against him for a one-armed hug and chuckled kindly at the other soldier.

"I forgive you," he told him. Tucker hesitated a moment but hugged Wash back. "Now, we should get inside just in case Locus spots us and gets any ideas." Everyone nodded and Wash stood, Tucker and Caboose following his lead. They all walked away from the wall, Reds heading for their base and the Blues for theirs. The rest of the day was quiet and uneventful, Tucker and Caboose argued over crayons for awhile which got a laugh out of Wash but other than that the subject of what had happened stayed untouched until the evening after they had even their rations.

"Hey, Wash?" Wash turned over on his bunk to look at Tucker with a raised brow, their shared room having been quiet for awhile before the other soldier decided to speak. "Listen, I meant what I said earlier. You can come to us about anything, ok?" Wash blinked at Tucker as he remembered when North had told him the same thing, he hadn't believed it because at the time it had been the fall of the project and he was unsure about everything and in fact he hadn't trusted them before either, they seemed to good to be true. "They said that to you, didn't they?" Wash blinked again, realizing he had been in thought for awhile now. "Well, forget about that. Your with us now and we may be idiots but we're honest idiots."

"Point taken," Wash said with a soft chuckle. Tucker nodded sharply in approval and Wash laughed a little at his serious expression. "I'll remember that, thank you." Wash went to close his eyes but Tucker spoke up again.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Wash's eyes opened again and he nodded, giving him the go ahead. Tucker was silent a moment as though forming words in his head correctly before speaking. "Are...are we your family now?" Wash stared at Tucker in shock, using all his might to keep his jaw from dropping at a question he'd expect from Caboose or even Donut but not Tucker. After thinking if over Wash gave a small smile.

"Considering that I've given you a time out before, yes. You are," Wash told him. Tucker huffed, unamused by his joke, but had a soft smile. "Good night, Levernius." Wash closed his eyes and Tucker did the same.

"Good night, David." Wash's eyes snapped back open at the name and stared at him with wide eyes but no words filled the silence of the night as Wash continued to stare. How had Tucker known his name? Where had he heard it? He wasn't some kind of spy was he? No, he couldn't be, could he? "It was in your file." Wash blinked at the mumbled sentence but decided not to press farther, at least not until morning, and closed his eyes for rest.

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**And that's a wrap! And, as always, many feels to all ^-^ My Christmas story should be out soon :D**

**Thanks for reading, please review, and have a bow chicka bow wow day**

**Petchricor, QotG, signing off ;)**


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